Mar 16 Working on the go / ПЛЯЖНЫЙ ОФИС

We are soaking in vitamin D every moment there is! These sunny days feel like such a treat after a gloomy winter. Modern age comes with its quirks that are not particularly my favorite, like often over-booked schedules and 24/7 reachability thanks to highly developed cellular and web networks, but there is one big undeniable benefit - we have more and more freedom, flexibility, and ability to combine work with family and be equally engaged and productive in both areas than ever before.

Last week was a great example of it for me. Because the weather was so nice, rather than dragging the little ones with me to the studio (yet again), I switched the agenda to take care of that which could be done at a distance, and brought my work necessities to the beach that has become "the office for the day," along with a huge bag of sand toys, shovels, snacks and a mat for the little ones to sit on. Elia and Evyianne got absolutely absorbed by their new "playground" leaving me with a few hours of peaceful, focused work that needed attention. We had a few things come up over the last couple of weeks that I needed to have a really clear head to think over and find the best paths to make work be more efficient and productive. On that note, during one of our recent lengthy "solution conversations," a friend recommended a new SquareCash app as a tool to use - I cannot believe I didn't know about it, so sharing here in case you haven't heard about it either. If you haven't seen it - it's so worth the attention, in my opinion.

For me, it was one of the best solutions to gather and distribute the money we needed for work expenses without running to the bank every time or having a ton of people with a designated business credit card (that always makes me nervous). When it comes to finances, and especially work-related stuff, I am extremely careful. In SquareCash, you can tie either a bank card or Apple Pay (recently integrated) to send and receive funds. I like that there is no fee for the transactions if you allow for a time period - I like to plan a week ahead for the expenses we will need. There is also an option for immediate access to money with a small fee, should there be a need for something urgent. I already used that urgent feature a couple of times, with one being when I forgot my wallet at home along with wipes for Elia, and just as it always happens, she made a glorious mess of herself while eating a mess-free snack on the way to the studio. I was running very short on time, so coming back home really was not an option, but I didn't realize I didn't have a penny on me until I got to the checkout. Justin sent me the amount I needed which saved my sanity and the entire day too :). Needless to say, this little technological invention has been a fantastic option to make the daily workflow easier.

Back to the beach.

I pulled out a camera at the end of the day to snap a few shots of Elia and Evyianne.They were so, so adorable while being so serious about all the shovels and buckets. The more years into this parenting journey, the more I appreciate these sweet moments especially with toddlers who view the world so differently and with such awe. Around 5-ish Nikola joined in after his programming lessons (who is this teenager?! Programming? At 13?) and jumped in on an opportunity for some beach photography practice, so I have a whole bunch of pictures for the photo-story for you to see: